Investigation to determine whether healthy chickens and turkeys are oral carriers of Pasteurella multocida.

To investigate to what extent healthy chickens and turkeys may be carriers of Pasteurella multocida, oral swabs were examined from birds in flocks with or without a history of avian pasteurellosis. In all 841 specimens were examined by cultural methods but 142 were also tested by mouse inoculation. P multocida was not found in specimens from normal healthy flocks but was recovered from some live chickens in known infected flocks and from dead turkeys on an infected farm. The implications of these findings are briefly discussed.